Depends on the country, but the top handful will have 9 man squads. The descent and run in to the finish basically means it highly unlikely a pure climber can win. Thus making the guys like Valverde, Nibali, and Uran the favorites. Herein lies the problem for basically all those teams, how to shake Valverde who has an actual sprint that none of the other climbers have and happens to be one of the best descenders as well.

Gigs_98 wrote:Let's please not ignore how ridiculously hard that last climb is. Sure, there is a chance this will end in a sprint between a few riders but saying it's very hard to finish alone simply isn't true.

Yes, it’s a tough climb, but we’re talking about Valverde here, not Sagan, Matthews, Van Avermaet etc. if Valverde really does want this, I’m not sure who can beat him other than himself.

Gigs_98 wrote:Let's please not ignore how ridiculously hard that last climb is. Sure, there is a chance this will end in a sprint between a few riders but saying it's very hard to finish alone simply isn't true.

Yes, it’s a tough climb, but we’re talking about Valverde here, not Sagan, Matthews, Van Avermaet etc. if Valverde really does want this, I’m not sure who can beat him other than himself.

If valverde is so unbeatable on courses like this can you give me a list of big one day races he won which ended after a descent?

Valverde's biggest issue at Lombardia is that he's usually close to if not over 90 race days by the time he races it. He's still managed to podium there with a good 10 to 20 more race days than any of the other GC riders by the time you get to Lombardia. Also he's won and has multiple podiums at San Sebastian after racing for GC at the Tour. Many of the guys he's racing against at San Sebastian weren't racing for GC at the Tour. The guys who are most likely to beat Valverde at this year's worlds aside from Nibali are NOT the top level GC riders.

Koronin wrote:Valverde's biggest issue at Lombardia is that he's usually close to if not over 90 race days by the time he races it. He's still managed to podium there with a good 10 to 20 more race days than any of the other GC riders by the time you get to Lombardia. Also he's won and has multiple podiums at San Sebastian after racing for GC at the Tour. Many of the guys he's racing against at San Sebastian weren't racing for GC at the Tour. The guys who are most likely to beat Valverde at this year's worlds aside from Nibali are NOT the top level GC riders.

no... valverde's biggest issue is that lombardia isn't so controlled as liege or fleche. We all know that liege and fleche is decided in the final 300 meters (nowadays) and this is tailormade for a perfect uphill sprinter like valverde. the number of race days never was a problem for valverde and never will be, the guy is a monster all season. how many podiums valverde have in the worlds? A lot!! and he always comes to the worlds with 20 or more race days than the other favourites.

Koronin wrote:Valverde's biggest issue at Lombardia is that he's usually close to if not over 90 race days by the time he races it. He's still managed to podium there with a good 10 to 20 more race days than any of the other GC riders by the time you get to Lombardia. Also he's won and has multiple podiums at San Sebastian after racing for GC at the Tour. Many of the guys he's racing against at San Sebastian weren't racing for GC at the Tour. The guys who are most likely to beat Valverde at this year's worlds aside from Nibali are NOT the top level GC riders.

no... valverde's biggest issue is that lombardia isn't so controlled as liege or fleche. We all know that liege and fleche is decided in the final 300 meters (nowadays) and this is tailormade for a perfect uphill sprinter like valverde. the number of race days never was a problem for valverde and never will be, the guy is a monster all season. how many podiums valverde have in the worlds? A lot!! and he always comes to the worlds with 20 or more race days than the other favourites.

He's got 6. However, there is something to it. Even the team has said they've got to find a way to get him to the worlds with less than 90 race days this year. If he didn't screw up the race himself the year Costa won he probably wins that one. Yes he has managed to screw up races himself and it's cost him wins over the years. He'll be a bit fresher if the team can get him to the Worlds with 85 race days instead of 90. He's even said once you hit 90 race days it becomes too much for him even though he's still managed to get a top 5 at Lombardia with over 90 race days. Now for this year's Worlds Spain needs to actually take a team solely dedicated to him instead of a split team, which most likely means you do not put Landa on the Worlds team. The thing the other riders also KNOW if they take Valverde to the finish with them he wins in a sprint. That is something they know before they ever start Lombardia or this year's Worlds. The question is can someone attack from far enough away and hold on. Nibali would be the best candidate to actually do that. But if they take Valverde to the top of the final climb with them or even if he loose a little on the climb and catches them on the decent he wins in the sprint. He can out sprint anyone who is going to be there after that last climb on a flat sprint. The guys who can out sprint him can't climb well enough to be there in the end of this one.

So, you get Pantano and Atapuma as either, break or Doms. Then Lopez, Nairo and Bernal for a long range attack. Finally, you save Uran, Henao and Betancur for the last chance.... I still have one open spot... Torres can take it as he has had good Lombardias.Edit: Fvk! I forgot Chaves